Five Talents

This article is about the charitable organization. For the Christian parable, see Parable of the talents or minas.

File:Five talents logo.jpg

Five Talents is a Christian charity that empowers the poor in developing countries through microenterprise development. Working closely with local churches in some of the world’s poorest areas, Five Talents helps women and men to identify, develop, and use their God-given talents for good. Five Talents' programs serve people of all faiths and none, regardless of religious background.

Five Talents empowers the poor to develop their own businesses through community savings, literacy and financial literacy, and business skills training. These businesses provide jobs in their communities - all started with small amounts of money that go a long way in developing countries.

Organization

Five Talents has offices in Washington, DC, London, and Kenya with partner organizations in 9 countries around the world.

Five Talents was founded at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Church leaders in 1998 as 'a long term response to help the poor in developing countries based on need not creed'.

The patron is the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby. Working in some of the poorest and most marginalized areas of the world, Five Talents helps communities develop savings groups, offer financial services, and provide financial literacy and business skills training. Over the years, Five Talents has partnered with local communities to build community banks and has empowered over 100,000 entrepreneurs in the developing world with more than 40,000 new businesses. community banks.

Projects

Five Talents currently works in 9 developing countries, which are: Burundi, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda

In the media

In December 2011 the work of Five Talents was highlighted on the Huffington Post website in an article by Carolyn Sharp, a professor at Yale University.

In May 2010 Five Talents was featured on the BBC's monthly television charity appeal programme 'Lifeline'. A short film starring Sandi Toksvig was broadcast on BBC1 and explored the impact of Five Talents on the poor in Tanzania.

Awards

Five Talents US was named "one of the best" non-profits for by Greater Washington's Catalogue for Philanthropy, According to the Catalogue, "115 reviewers from foundations, corporations, corporate giving programs, giving circles, the philanthropic advisory community, and peer nonprofits, evaluate applicants for distinction, merit, and impact."

Five Talents UK won the 2011 Award from Advocates for International Development (A4ID) for the best Development Partner. This award celebrates the outstanding achievements of legal professionals and the development organisations they have worked with in tackling extreme poverty and meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

Group lending model

Main article: Solidarity lending

Five Talents operates using a training and savings led group lending model. Members receive training in financial literacy, savings, and business development. They meet on a regular basis, often weekly, and contribute to savings groups. After six months of savings, members can access low interest loans provided to the group as a whole, so if one person has difficulty in repaying, the others in the group will have to cover their repayments. This system aims to reach those who are unable to take out commercial loans due to lack of collateral. The majority of borrowers are women. Loans are paid back within a short period of time and recycled for further business development.

See also

• Parable of the Talents

Further reading

• Marshall, Katherine and Van Saanen, Marisa, "Development and Faith," The World Bank, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8213-7173-2
• Bussau, David and Mask, Russell, "Christian Microenterprise Development: A Handbook", Paternoster Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-870345-28-6